198382 Resource 177919 191501 183236 1204189809197 1204212719425 Controlled Tobacco Goes Global

A cloud over planet earth

<img vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0" align="right" style="width: 136px; height: 123px;" src="http://www.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20050611/160_china_smoking_050611.jpg" /> When it comes to tobacco, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/02/24/weekinreview/marsh.html">facts</a> make their own case. This is true locally, as with the numbers on second-hand smoke induced disease, which have pushed most of the US indoor public space to go "smoke-free." It is also true globally. Here are a few facts:   1. There are 1.3 billion smokers on the planet, with about 1/2 coming from China (30%), India (11%), and Indonesia (5%).   2. In 1970, 60% of smokers hailed from developed nations, and 40% from developing nations. Today 25% are from developed countries and 75% from developing countries.   3. Projected deaths from smoking in the next 25 years: 41 million from developed nations, 135 million from developing nations.   4. Currently tobacco kills 5.4 million worldwide per year according to the WHO. In 25 years, it will be 8 million per year. US smokers? They make up 4.5 of the world's smoking population.   5. Gender disparity rules tobacco in the developing world. China smokers - 60% of all males, 4% of all females; India - 33% of all males, 4% of all females; Indonesia - 66% of all males, 5% of all females. (US by comparison - 24% of males and 18% of females.) Next target for tobacco marketing overseas? Do I need to give you that answer?  10 application/xml global issues tobacco false Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 abigailg 199.74.89.64 false true false false true 179654 false false true false false false true 177919 blog blogsite/HealthCommentary/web